LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



GJfppyfe^a (Srqnjrigfri "tya. 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



OUTLINES 



OF A 



'Modified Phonography 



BY 



;/ 



GEO. R. BISHOP, 



STENOGRAPHER OF THE N. Y. STOCK EXCHANGE J PRESIDENT (iN 1877) OF THE 

LAW STENOGRAPHERS' ASSOCIATION OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK, AND LATELY 

PRESIDENT OF N. Y. STATE STENOGRAPHERS' ASSOCIATION. 









NEW YORK : 

PUBLISHED BY THE AUTHOR. 



Copyright, 1S84, 
by 
George R. Bishop. 












INTRODUCTION. 

In my opening remarks made at the meeting of the N. Y. 
State Stenographers' Association, held at Watkins, N. Y., in 
August, 1883, I referred (see p. 9 of the printed Proceedings,) 
to a scheme that I hoped to perfect, for a more definite and 
easy mode of representing the vowel sounds in connection with 
the consonant signs now used in Phonography. I might have 
added, that from time to time during the last seven or eight 
years, or longer, I have given some thought to the general 
subject ; have followed out, formulated, and to some degree 
tested, one or two trains of thought besides the one herein 
elucidated, to all of which one central idea has been common, 
that of constructing a System of Vowel signs that should be sus- 
ceptible of a treatment similar to that to which the Consonant 
signs were subjected; to which, for example, hooks, loops and cir- 
cles, could be attached ; the operation in each instance, whether 
applied to a vowel or to a consonant sign, having the same ef- 
fect. I am not aware that the idea has occurred to the author 
of any book on short-hand ; it certainly never has been work- 
ed out in any English or American system with which I am 
acquainted. This pamphlet never would have been written 
did I not think that my efforts in the direction of such 
uniformity had been attended with some measure of success. 

Those who have attentively watched the development of 
Stenography during the last dozen years will, on glancing 
over the following pages, perceive that, beyond the main fea- 
ture of novelty presented — that of the uniform treatment of 
consonant and vowel strokes, a novel application has been 
sought to be made of some of the ideas and suggestions of 
others. 

1. In 1837 Thos. Towndrow, in his " Complete Guide to the 
Art of Writing Short-Hand" a copy of which, bearing the date 
of 1843, I have, exhibited a system of vowel signs which were 



like consonant signs, except that each vowel sign began with 
what phonographers would call an initial ^-circle ; i.e., certain 
consonant signs, by the prefixing of the circle, became vowel 
signs. Mr. Towxdrow limited himself in the construction of 
his vowel signs to the straight strokes. Prof. Everett, of 
Belfast, in his new system published seven or eight years 
since, also employs the initial ^-circle as the distinguishing 
mark of his vowel signs ; but he secures greater variety by 
using both the straight and the curved strokes. 

2. So far as I know, Phonographers, with two exceptions, 
employ the device of doubling the length of a curved conso- 
nant stroke to indicate added tr, dr, or thr. Messrs. E. T. 
Davis and J. A. McLaughlan, who constitute the two excep- 
tions I have referred to, have, for J2 or 15 years, employed 
such lengthening process to indicate simply added-r ; securing 
without a hook precisely the effect of the r-hook ; and claiming 
that this is the more advantageous use of the operation. 
Prof. Everett employs the same expedient in a limited way, 
applying it to final curved vowel strokes that are followed by 
the sound of r. Throughout the following Outlines, I employ 
it on all curved strokes, whether vowel or consonant, to indi- 
cate addition of r-sound : attaining thereby a uniformity that 
Prof. Everett sacrifices. 

3. The two Phonographers whom I have named have during 
many years discarded ch and/ signs as such ; using the former 
for downward r and the latter for h ; writing tsh for ch and dzh 
for/. Prof. Everett writes ch and / primarily by the tsh 
and dzh signs. I do not follow them in this ; but I cite this 
fact as an illustration of the manner in which gentlemen who 
may be supposed to have been thinking independently of each 
other are able to arrive at similar results ; a result that in this 
case saves two signs for use for other purposes. 

That in Prof. Everett's short-hand which seems to me to 
be its most distinguishing original feature is its ingenious use 
of the position* above the line — what Phonographers call the 
first position. He employs it to indicate that any stroke, 
whether straight or curved, written in that position, is a vowel 
stroke. Having at his command that means of distinguishing, 



he is able to avoid the use of the initial circle in writing any 
word or phrase whose first sound is a vowel sound. Simple 
as it may seem, I know of no other published idea or sugges- 
tion in connection with short-hand, given to the world since 
Pitman published his first book, involving such important, 
such far-reaching results. At the same time, I feel that he has 
not fully profited by the thought. I believe that greater brev- 
ity could have been given to his system without sacrificing its 
definiteness or legibility. He has almost wholly discarded the 
use of hooks ; he also rejects the device of indicating a suc- 
ceeding t or d by halving the length of a stroke ; both of 
which the phonographer finds to be perfectly practicable ; on 
the first of which he relies for making distinctions of form 
not otherwise attainable ; both of which he finds very effective 
in abbreviating; both of which the hand can easily trace. I 
could not think of sacrificing either of them. 

Having in view the like treatment of both vowel and con- 
sonant strokes, I throw overboard the entire system of dot 
and dash representation of vowels, of the Pitman Phonogra- 
phy. The old plan of Towndrow, the new one of Everett, 
have been found to be full of suggestion ; but I have endeav- 
ored to get out of the idea more than they have obtained. 
We have only certain simple geometrical forms from which 
the short-hand writer can select; the problem is, , to evoke 
from them the greatest amount of expression. 

Prof. Everett, in lengthening his vowel strokes to indicate 
added-r, in many instances gives them a different form, 
changing from straight to curved. This, it seems to me, should 
be avoided. I have sought to always preserve the distinguish- 
ing form, though in several instance, especially where doub- 
ling the length of a sign would carry the hand to an incon- 
venient position, I thicken the stroke to add r, instead of 
doubling it. It seems to me this again is in aid of uniformity. 
By these two processes — of thickening and lengthening, I ob- 
tain, on all curved vowel strokes, the equivalent of the r-hook 
on straight consonant strokes, and the equivalent of the r-hook, 
or of lengthening, on the curved consonant strokes. 



I also adopt an independent and original device to obtain, 
on vowel strokes, the equivalent of l-hook on consonant 
strokes. When placed in the first position, a vowel stroke — 
the initial circle having been gotten rid of — takes an l-hook 
just the same as a consonant stroke does ; but for medial po- 
sitions, a substitute for the l-hook is needed. I obtain 
this by doubling the size of the initial circle ; making it the ex- 
act equivalent of the l-hook. 

As to the final hooks, nothing need be said except that 
they are attached to vowel as well as consonant strokes, in 
precisely the manner in which, in ordinary phonography, they 
are attached to the consonant strokes. 

We have, then, this result : a "system" by which we can at- 
tach to every vowel sign a hook or the equivalent of a hook, in 
the manner in which, and as universally as, we can attach 
hooks to the consonant signs. That this is a gain in method, 
and tends to simplification, can hardly, I think, be questioned. 
Besides, the vowel signs are just as distinct in form, are as 
large, and are as easily caught and distinguished by the eye, 
as the consonant signs are. 

The ordinary phonography employs three positions (and a 
fourth for a special purpose), to each of which three positions 
an ambiguity attaches ; for each is employed to indicate sev- 
eral preceding and several succeeding vowel sounds ; so that, 
if the practitioner do not go back and write in the dashes and 
dots — which at best are minute, and not as readily distin- 
guishable as the strokes are — he has to select which, among 
the several similarly implied vowel sounds, is the one actually 
implied ; wmerefore, for the purposes of rapid writing, it has 
been found necessary to construct elaborate catalogues of 
word-signs, to be learned only after long and laborious appli- 
cation and memorizing. 

The prefixing of a circle to indicate a vowel sound necessi- 
tates, of course, the discarding of the initial circle for s and ss, 
but it does not interfere with the use of it at the end of a 
stroke for any of the purposes for which phonographers use 
it. Indeed, it may be used as a final, or have given to it all 
the effects of a final, even in the middle of a word or phrase, 



7 

if one chooses to lift his pen and write the next stroke dis- 
joined. For the purpose of compensating, as far as possible, 
for the loss of s-circle initially, it has been thought best to se- 
lect for s a sign in addition to the ordinary s-stroke (for ex- 
emplification of which, see § 16, p. 15,). 

Mr. Wilbour's plan, as set forth in Mr. Munson's books, 
of always, on curved consonant strokes, writing the r-hook 
small and the 1-hook large, instead of turning some strokes 
over to add the r-hook, commends itself as conducing to sim- 
plicity; on which ground I prefer it. But I know of no reason 
why a phonographer who preferred the older way of attaching 
the hooks could not adopt the remainder of the suggestions 
herein contained. It is to be understood that I extend this 
principle of small hooks for r- and large hooks for /-hook to 
the vowel signs also. 

Perhaps I should also mention in this introduction the plan 
by which, in avoiding the loss of a circle or a convenient hook 
in the middle of a word, I add a vowel stroke without writing 
its initial circle. This consists in striking the vowel stroke, 
with the circle left off, through the preceding character, except 
in the few instances in which the similarity of inclination of 
the two strokes would render intersection difficult or impossi- 
ble. The point to be remembered is : that as, at the beginning 
of words or phrases, a stroke in the first position, without any 
distinguishing circle, is always to be read as a vowel stroke, 
so, in the middle of words or phrases, a stroke struck 
through the preceding stroke, is likewise always a vowel stroke. 
So that the vowel strokes may shortly be said to be recogniza- 
ble in three ways : 1st, by an initial circle ; 2nd, by being writ- 
ten in the. first position ; 3d, by being struck through the pre- 
ceding stroke. 

I submit these ideas to my friends, members of the Law 
Stenographers' Association of the City of New York, and of 
the N. Y. State Stenographers' Association, both of which 
bodies have heretofore done me the honor of making me their 
president, and to some other practical phonographers; inviting 
their criticisms, however severe, and their friendly sugges- 
tions, if they have any to offer. This pamphlet, it will be 



8 

observed, presents merely an outline and the general princi- 
ples of the new scheme ; but I hope to soon have occasion to 
offer something more in detail. 

The photo-lithographic process of re-production seemed to 
be the most convenient mode by which these preliminary 
outlines could be presented ; and that has, therefore, been 
selected. 

New York, August 9, 1884. 



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OUTLINES 



OF A 



Modified Phonography; 



BY 



GEO. R. BISHOP, 



STENOGRAPHER OF THE N. Y. STOCK EXCHANGE ; PRESIDENT (iN 1877) OF THE 

LAW STENOGRAPHERS' ASSOCIATION OF THE CITY OF NEW YORK, AND LATELY 

PRESIDENT OF N. Y. STATE STENOGRAPHERS' ASSOCIATION. 



NEW YORK 



